Time to brush off penchant for tar

WE LURCH from one crisis to the next. Allegations of sports corruption. Swimmers mistaking the Olympics for Schoolies. Now we face the real danger of a national tar shortage.

A $5 note in the holiday jar for every time you have heard, in the past few weeks, that Australian athletes have been ''tarred with the one brush''. Forget that caravan park in Kiama. You're going to Disneyland!

NRL players are dripping with tar, we are told, because of the Australian Crime Commission report into organised crimes links with sport. The failure by the ACC to ''name names'' has tar-nished everyone.

But surely, before claiming their players have been defamed and their brand trashed, clubs should ask themselves if they have done enough to put themselves beyond reproach. Whether they have built a reputation strong enough to withstand a widespread and - if there are links with organised crime - necessary period of inquisition.

''Innocent until proven guilty'' has been a close second to ''tarred with the one brush'' on the list of reflexive responses. But, in the court of public opinion, trust must be earned.

Certainly, the grim faces of politicians and sports executives at the announcement of the ACC investigation created an impression that the NRL and AFL, particularly, had a major problem with drugs, match-fixing or other crime-related evils. But for the public to leap to that assumption that everyone was up to their eyeballs in peptides and cocaine there must have been an absence of trust. If a sponsor is willing to jump ship at the sight of a prop forward taking a headache tablet, then rugby league has not done enough to establish its reputation.

An orchestrated display of solidarity by Penrith players and officials at an ASADA briefing was a potent symbol of defiance. As was the Storm players marching out on to AAMI Park after the club's salary cap rorting penalties were announced. But symbolism is easy. It would have been much more difficult for the Storm players to confront the club or agents about dubious payment methods. Just as it is more difficult to work, day in and day out, to put the image of the NRL beyond suspicion.

What tar was left after the ACC investigation was supposedly smeared on the Australian swimming team. Some demand that Swimming Australia - yep - ''name names'' after the release of two damning reports detailing the reasons for the team's sub-standard performance in London.

Such demands are misguided. What is the point of naming athletes when you do not intend to take punitive action? The opportunity to discipline the miscreants has come and gone.

But, rather than a navel-gazing exercise, the detailed and instructive reports should form the part of swimming's future. One that provides far better support for dedicated young athletes.

Swimming needs to regain the benefit of the doubt. Astonishingly, after years of agenda-setting administration, so does the AFL.

The AFL's bizarre decision to suspend two officials, and fine Melbourne $500,000, yet deny the club had tanked defies explanation.

Straight-talking Paul Roos provided a breath air when asked if Melbourne had tanked: ''Of course they did.''

After its similarly weak-kneed response to Adelaide salary cap rorting, the AFL's once well-deserved reputation for strong administration has been compromised. The benefit of the doubt is lost.

Next time the AFL lurches into crisis? ''Anyone have some tar?''

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